Listening to my customers
Feb/01/2007 06:44 Filed in: DTC
Environment
Nearly all of the people participating in the focus groups turn to the Internet for health information but they also seem to be frustrated with the "clarity" of that information. All too often they find the information confusing and hard to understand even on sites like Web MD. We also heard that they tend not to trust manufacturers sites because "they will only tell you the good things not the bad". We heard this both days from all our groups. They want to be able to compare products against each other and are very frustrated that they usually have to go to a number of different sites to get that information. Content is king on websites and we heard from a number of people that a lot of the content on product.com websites is hard to understand.
We then did an interesting exercise, we let them design our new website home-page and then they presented the home pages to the other people in the groups. This was enlightening because the Web is about what users want not what marketers want them to see. What was funny was that they quickly switched hats from consumers to marketers saying things like "we want our visitors to go here". One thing became apparent though..I want what I want and if I can't find it on your site I am going to leave and go elsewhere.
Not Happy With Their Doctors
One would think that their physicians would offer advice on medications and or medical devices but we found the opposite. All too often HCP's just gave patients brochures or told them to go to the Web to answer their questions. In fact on woman was as bold to say that "all doctors are whores" when asked about getting health information from their HCP's. Obviously she has had a bad experience with her doctor but people want to talk about their health issues and more importantly talk to each other. This is where the Web can play a big part in bringing people together to share their experiences. Our subjects continually expressed the desire for patient testimonials but only if they were real and not "edited". "I want to know what happens the good and the bad experience" said one person, and the others were quick to agree. The Internet can be that channel to bring these people together but I am sure that the legal and regulatory people are going to have something to say about that. Still I am going to move forward with this goal..I went as far as to invite a person from my legal team to the research and she said that it was "highly enlightening" and that I was right we have to find a way to make it happen for the benefit of our patients. For the benefits of our patients....that to me is what it's all about.
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